Scudéry, Madeleine de (1607‒1701)

Scudéry, Madeleine de, French novelist, born at Havre, came to Paris
in her youth, and there lived to an extreme old age; was a prominent
figure in the social and literary life of the city; collaborated at first
with her brother Georges, but subsequently was responsible herself for a
set of love romances of an inordinate length, but of great popularity in
their day, e. g. “Le Grand Cyrus” and “Clélie,” &c., in which a real
gift for sparkling dialogue is swallowed up in a mass of improbable
adventures and prudish sentimentalism (1607‒1701).